- There has been a deadly bus crash at Genting Highlands. The bus crashed into a ravine at Genting Highlands killing 37 people and injuring 16 others.

- There have been conflicting news reports on the cause of the crash. Some attributed the cause to the loss of brakes while others quoted survivors as saying that the bus was going at high speed.

- Acting Transport Minister, Datuk Seri Hishammuddin Hussein said that no stone will be left unturned in the investigation.

- The Press quoted a spokesman from Genting Malaysia Bhd (GenM) as saying that the bus in the accident was not owned by GenM. It was a public transport bus.

- There is a possibility that the investigation on buses going up to “Resorts World Genting” would affect GenM’s bus programme in the future.

- One reason why “Resorts World Genting” has managed to record a high number of visitors every year is its successful bus programme. There were 20.5mil visitors at “Resorts World Genting” in FY12 versus 20.3mil in FY11.

- About 73% of these visitors were day-trippers.

- GenM has daily tour bus services from 67 locations in Peninsular Malaysia. The number of locations being serviced increased from 51 in 2011 to 67 in 2012.

- According to its latest Annual Report, GenM provided additional VIP coaches in Klang Valley last year to meet the growing demands of the highly popular “Go Genting” tour bus programme.

- Going forward, the number of visitors at “Resorts World Genting” is expected to increase due to the development of an additional 1,300 hotel rooms. These are targeted to be completed by FY16F.

- With the additional hotel rooms, we reckon that GenM would have to improve the roads and infrastructure at “Resorts World Genting”. Maintain HOLD on GenM.

Source: AmeSecurities